Wayland Historical Society benefactor – Leila Sears (1919-2008)
Leila Sears generously gave to the Wayland Historical Society in her will. Her generosity, along with others, allowed for the exterior painting of the Museum, the provision for inside-storm windows, and now we are trying to make the driveway and small parking area safer for pedestrians. She was also an extraordinary person.
Evelyn Wolfson writes in her book, “Legendary Locals of Wayland“, Leila Sears was a popular figure in town, serving two decades as town clerk. She raised golden retrievers and west highland white terriers on Pelham Island Road and was a member of the Wayland Historical Society and the Elbanobscot Foundation. But few were aware of her service during World War II. She had been stationed in Washington, DC, worked in the Navy’s decryption units, delivering dispatches to Fleet Adm. Chester A. Nimitz. In 1972, she moved to New York City and joined the executive staff of the American Kennel Club.
Obituary from the Valley News, White River Junction, Pomfret, Vermont
Leila Sears, 89, died Sunday, February 17 at her home on Cloudland Road in Pomfret, Vermont.
Leila Sears was born February 14, 1919, in the home of her parents, Edmund H. Sears, 3rd and Sophia Bennett Sears on Pelham Island in Wayland, Massachusetts . After graduating from Concord Academy in 1937 and Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1943, she entered the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of lieutenant, junior grade during the war.
For several decades after World War II, Leila refused to discuss the nature of her duties in the Navy. After the U.S. government revealed that it had broken the codes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Leila, disclosed that she had served in the U.S. Navy’s decryption unit based in Washington, D .C.
Leila told her family that on one occasion she had taken decrypted dispatches to Fleet Admiral Chester A. Nimitz in his Pentagon office, and that while she waited for Admiral Nimitz to sign several papers acknowledging his review of the dispatches before they were returned to the secure files, the admiral engaged in small talk. Leila’s answers to Admiral Nimitz’s casual questions prompted him to ask whether she was related to Lieutenant Mary Sears. Leila said they were sisters. Admiral Nimitz rose from his chair, took both of Leila ‘s hands in his own, and said enigmatically, someday the country will learn how much it owes to your sister, Mary.
The experience left Leila puzzled, because she said her sister, Mary, an oceanographer by profession, never asserted any claim for special recognition for her war time service. Mary Sears died in 1997, and two years later, the U.S. Navy asked Leila to co-sponsor and to christen its newest oceanographic survey ship, USNS Mary Sears, (T-AGS 65) at its launching at the Halter Marine shipyard in Moss Point, Mississippi, on October 19, 2000. From Navy officials, Leila learned that her sister, Mary, had taught the Navy how to hide its submarines from the Japanese Imperial Navy between different temperature layers in the Pacific Ocean, and that Mary had helped the Navy develop planning guidelines for amphibious operations. In her final years, Leila expressed great pride in her sister, Commander Sears, and great delight in her own role as co-sponsor of the USNS Mary Sears.
After the war, Leila attended the Duke University Law School on the G.I. Bill, and graduated in 1949. With her law degree, Leila returned to Wayland, Massachusetts, where she was active in the First Parish Unitarian Church of Wayland and the Elbanobscot Foundation of Sudbury. Leila was elected town clerk of Wayland in 1952 and was re-elected repeatedly over the ensuing 20 years. Also in 1952, she began raising Golden Retrievers, and around 1960, she added West Highland White Terriers to her Kingoldrum Kennel.
In 1972, Leila joined the executive staff of the American Kennel Club in New York City. She retired to Pomfret , Vermont, in 1986 where she enjoyed gardening, membership in the North Pomfret Ladies Circle, and serving on several committees of Vermont Public Radio.
Leila is survived by her sister, Elisabeth Sears of Killington, Vermont; seven nephews and eight nieces, and many great nephews and nieces.